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When I heard, that the new perfume Volutes by Diptyque has been inspired by a childhood memory of founder Yves Coueslant, namely by a passage from Marseille to Saigon, I immediately thought of one of my favorite books â€“ The Lover by Marguerite Duras. I also love the movie and its soundtrack. It’s a blue, bittersweet melancholia amidst the scenery of the fertile landscape of Vietnam.

Perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin has created the image of elegant ladies on a steamboat, standing at the rail smoking Egyptian cigarettes and sending smoke rings into the cool sea air. I imagine the famous scene from The Lover, the little French girl wearing a man’s hat and braids, putting her worn down stiletto on the rail while the Chinese man is observing her.

Volutes is a very feminine, soft scent with spicy nuances, yet cool. Sweet-smoky-spicy-cool to be precise. Iris is very dominant in the composition and functions as a metaphor for the silk dresses fluttering in the wind. It is also a very good contrast to the sweetness of honey tobacco. Dried fruits and oriental spices reveal an aroma of an oriental market, maybe a stopover of this journey. Resins represent the ship’s engine room. Volutes is a very round and strong composition, an intense woody oriental perfume. I don’t find it suitable for men. Amber pulls us into the depths of the ocean while the smoke rings fly to heaven. Volutes spreads the word into all cardinal directions.

When I first tested Valentina I thought â€œWhy do they all create this 90′s stuff now?â€œ You know trends â€“ it always takes some time and then you get used to them. Same story with the 90′s comeback in perfumery. Suddenly you are very into it.

Today I have taken some time to give Valentina a second chance. A friend of mine told me that she has bought it, because it makes her feel ‘well dressed’. I tried to forget the bottle, thought â€œit’s not that badâ€œ and there are two glorious perfumers behind the creation. But: it is, what it is, a well done mainstream scent â€“ a white floral fruitchouly. If you like it sweet, go for it. Okay, it’s not the next Flowerbomb, but it smells too familiar, strawberry and tuberose are way too dominant. The scent becomes sweeter and sweeter as time goes by â€“ like a 90′s model wearing too much makeup. I don’t even get a hint of cedar. Elegant, well, maybe in the opening.

Have a look at the spot, I really love the black Valentino dress. And of course Freja is wonderful! Click here.

I don’t know what happened to Monsieur Lutens but I feel that something has changed. I’ve first noticed it with Bas de Soie. The perfumes are getting more floral, transparent, less oriental, less spicy. They feel more and more French, loosing its Moroccan or let’s say oriental background.

Vitriol d’oeillet (Vitriol of Carnation) is very clean and light. A scent around carnation seasoned with different kinds of pepper, nutmeg and clove, but the spices are reduced to a minimum. They reveal a licorice effect which turns into a slightly powdery, minimalistic musky base. Is there some violet in it? Seems so. When I first heard about it, I thought it would turn out rather oriental, but it is very French in a way, elegant, comparable to Bas de Soie, but less sharp and less intense. A very clear and kind of simple scent, which I can imagine for the early morning. It feels like a quiet garden when the sun has not yet fully risen, neither are the flowers in full bloom. I associate a sophisticated French businesswoman on her way to the next meeting. Very B.C.B.G. (bon chic bon genre), a French term meaning good style, good attitude.

To be honest, it is not the kind of perfume I would wear. I feel too young and too passionate for this scent. After half an hour it has nearly disappeared and you can only feel an idea of a perfume on your skin.

I cannot wait. I am longing for summer so much, that I always have to remind myself of the feeling by sniffing summer smells. One of the best summer scents comes from the manufacture Profumi del Forte and is called Vittoria Apuana, like a district of the Italian city Forte dei Marmi.